Cutting Edge Personal Training

There are a lot of great exercises.

That doesn't mean they're all great for you.

When I'm choosing an exercise for someone, I'm thinking about things like:

What are we trying to train?

Can they perform it well?

Does it fit their structure and mobility?

Can we load and progress it?

Does it cause pain or unnecessary discomfort?

Is the fatigue worth the benefit?

That's why two clients training for similar goals may have very different programs.

One might squat with a barbell.

Another might use a leg press.

Another might use a safety bar.

The exercise is a tool.

The goal determines which tool makes sense.

Don't get attached to an exercise just because someone told you it's "the best."

There is no trophy for choosing the most impressive exercise.

There are only results.

— Coach Jim

There's a reason I like keeping some single-arm and single-leg exercises in a program.

Unilateral training gives you information.

Do you have one leg that's noticeably stronger?

Does one arm control the movement better?

Can you stabilize equally well on both sides?

Those differences can get hidden when both sides are working together.

Exercises like:

• split squats
• single-leg presses
• one-arm rows
• one-arm presses
• single-leg RDLs

also allow you to train a muscle effectively without always requiring as much total load.

That doesn't mean unilateral exercises are "better" than bilateral exercises.

I use both.

Heavy bilateral movements are incredibly valuable.

Single-side movements simply solve some problems they don't.

A good program doesn't choose sides. It uses the right tool for the job.

— Coach Jim

Protein gets most of the attention in fitness nutrition.

Fiber deserves some too.

Fiber can help with:

• fullness and appetite control
• digestive health
• blood sugar management
• cholesterol management
• overall diet quality

A useful guideline for adults is roughly 14 grams of fiber per 1,000 calories consumed.

So rather than obsessing over finding some exotic "superfood," look at what you eat regularly.

A few easy ways to increase fiber:

Breakfast: Add berries or oats.

Lunch: Add beans or a higher-fiber wrap.

Snack: Choose fruit instead of juice.

Dinner: Put an actual serving of vegetables on the plate.

And increase fiber gradually if your current intake is low. Going from almost none to a mountain of it overnight may introduce you to some digestive consequences you weren't looking for.

Protein helps build a better diet.

It shouldn't be the only number you care about.

— Coach Jim

Your warm-up should improve your workout.

Not compete with it.

For strength training, I generally want the warm-up to accomplish a few things:

• Increase body temperature.

• Move the joints you're about to use.

• Rehearse the movement you're about to perform.

• Gradually expose your body to heavier loads.

Then...

Train.

If you're squatting, for example, you don't necessarily need 20 minutes of mobility drills before touching the bar.

You might do a few minutes of general movement, address anything that specifically needs attention, and then start ramping your squat:

Empty bar.

Light set.

Moderate set.

Heavier preparation set.

Working weight.

As the weight goes up, the warm-up reps generally come down.

Your last warm-up set shouldn't feel like your first working set.

The goal is to arrive at the important sets prepared—not fatigued.

— Coach Jim

If the workout says 8–12 reps, that doesn't mean you automatically stop at 12 regardless of how difficult the set was.

And it doesn't mean you have to somehow grind your way to 12 if rep 9 is already falling apart.

A rep range gives you a target.

Let's say you're doing 8–12 reps.

If you reach 12 with several good reps still available, that's probably a sign the weight needs to increase.

If you can't reach 8 with the intended technique, the weight may be too heavy.

And if rep 10 is genuinely the last good rep you have?

Ten was the right number that day.

The number written on the program matters.

But it only becomes useful when it's paired with the appropriate effort and ex*****on.

Don't chase the top of the rep range just to say you got there.

— Coach Jim

Traveling doesn't mean you need a great gym.

You need enough equipment to create a productive training stimulus.

If your hotel gym has dumbbells and a bench, try this:

1. Goblet Squat
3 × 10–15

2. Dumbbell Bench Press
3 × 8–12

3. One-Arm Dumbbell Row
3 × 8–12 each side

4. Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
3 × 10–12

5. Dumbbell Lateral Raise
2 × 12–20

If the dumbbells are lighter than you're accustomed to, don't automatically dismiss them.

Use:

• more reps
• slower lowering
• controlled pauses
• shorter rest periods where appropriate

You aren't trying to recreate your normal gym perfectly.

You're trying to give your muscles a good reason to keep adapting until you get home.

30–40 productive minutes. Then enjoy your trip.

— Coach Jim

Here's a training distinction that can make your workouts better:

Not every exercise needs to be pushed the same way.

Taking a set of cable curls or leg extensions to failure is very different from grinding a barbell squat until your technique falls apart.

The potential benefit might be similar:

More effort.

But the cost isn't.

On demanding compound exercises, I generally want hard, high-quality reps while maintaining control and positioning.

On stable machines and many isolation exercises?

That's often where we can safely push much closer to the limit.

This is one reason simply saying "train harder" isn't very useful advice.

Hard how?

On what exercise?

At what cost?

Good training isn't just knowing when to push.

It's knowing where you can push hardest.

— Coach Jim

How often should you actually see a personal trainer?

Once a week?

Twice?

Three times?

Here's something you might not expect to hear from someone who makes his living as a personal trainer:

More isn't always better.

Some people need frequent hands-on coaching. Others need programming, accountability, progression, and an occasional set of experienced eyes on what they're doing.

The goal shouldn't be to maximize the number of appointments you have with your trainer.

The goal should be to maximize your results.

So how much coaching do you actually need?

I broke it down in my latest blog 👇

How Often Should You See a Personal Trainer? How many times per week should you work with a personal trainer? Learn whether 1, 2, or 3 sessions makes the most sense for your goals.

Nutrition labels can give you a lot of information.

The problem is that people sometimes get lost in information that doesn't matter nearly as much as the basics.

When I'm evaluating a food, four things give me a pretty good first look:

1️⃣ Serving size

Everything else on the label depends on this. If the package contains three servings and you eat the whole thing, the numbers need to be multiplied by three.

2️⃣ Calories

Not because calories are "bad"—but because they tell you how energy-dense the food is.

3️⃣ Protein

Especially if the food is being marketed as "high protein." Some products deserve that label more than others.

4️⃣ Fiber

Particularly with cereals, breads, wraps and other foods marketed as healthy carbohydrate sources.

Then I'll look deeper depending on the person and the goal.

You don't need a nutrition degree to make better choices at the grocery store.

Start by knowing what you're actually buying.

— Coach Jim

Here's a lat pulldown mistake I see pretty regularly:

The rep starts upright...

and finishes with the person leaning halfway across the gym.

At that point, you've changed the exercise.

A little torso movement isn't automatically a problem.

But if you're using a big backward swing to move the weight, you're turning your pulldown into something closer to a row.

Try this instead:

• Set your torso with a slight lean back.

• Keep your chest tall.

• Think about driving your elbows **down toward your sides**.

• Control the weight back to the stretched position.

And if you can't do that without rocking backward?

**Lower the weight.**

Don't sacrifice the movement you're trying to train just to make the stack heavier.

— Coach Jim