Personal Fitness Training

A Personal Trainer can help you take charge of your program, and to do it your way!

There's a reason movie stars and financial moguls use personal trainers: working with a trainer is one of the fastest, easiest, most successful ways to improve your health and fitness.  In fact, personal training has proved so effective that it has spread well beyond the realm of the rich and famous. 

Today, personal trainers are used by people of all fitness, age and economic levels - and from all over the world - to help make lifestyle changes those people couldn't achieve by themselves. 

What can a Personal Trainer do for you?

1. Improve your overall fitness
A personal trainer will monitor your progress and fine-tune your program as you go, helping you work your way off plateaus.

2. Reach or maintain a healthy weight
Body fat reduction, weight reduction or management, body shaping and toning can all be achieved with the aid of a qualified trainer.

3. Learn to stick to it
Trainers can help motivate you with clear goals and safe strategies.

4. Focus on your unique health concerns
50% of clients have special needs such as arthritis, diabetes or obesity. 
A trainer can help you with these or other issues including low-back pain, rehabilitation from injury or pre/post natal training.

5. Find the right way to work out
Learn the correct way to use equipment and appropriate form and technique for cardiovascular work and free-weight/machine training.

6. Stop wasting time
Get maximum results in minimum time with a program designed specifically for you

7. Enhance your mind, body and spirit
Try outdoor pursuits such as hiking, kayaking, rock climbing and discover new insights about yourself or find the potential you didn't realize you had.

8. Take charge of your program and do it your way
Find the exercise program that works best for you; would you like to train at home or at work, at a club or in a trainer's facility? How many times per week or month do you want to meet your trainer and for how long? You can get fit and healthy your way and take ultimate responsibility for your own health.

Interested in personal training? Call Gaia at 604.875.0066 or email

Core Conditioning

Most of us do not realize that all movements of our body originate in and emanate outward from the core.  Studies on motor control and muscle recruitment patterns conclusively show that the deep abdominal wall muscles are activated 30 to 50 ms before arm or leg muscles in any activity. 

Such core activation is essential to stabilize the pelvis and rib cage, which in turn provide the working foundation for the legs and shoulder girdle.

To improve core control, try this simple feedback trick:

If you feel the string digging into your tummy and sides while performing your exercises it as an indication that you have allowed the transverse abdominus to relax while the spine is under load. 

By properly training your "core muscles to turn on"  you will gain performance and strength and greatly reduce your risk of injury.

Interested in improving your core? Call Gaia at 604.875.0066 or email

And check out Gaia's Body Ball Workshops

Get fitter and feel in better shape:
Lose 10 pounds in 3 months

You want to lose a few pounds? Well, you can, and it's easier than you may think. The goal: 10 pounds in 3 months. The method: 1) Do fat-burning workouts each week, and 2) Watch what and how much you eat. There is no easier plan than this, but you got to DO IT.

It's really about energy and how to balance your energy equation. To lose a pound, you have to burn roughly 3,500 calories and not replace them.

Ten pounds in 3 months is 3.5 pounds a month or about 1 pound a week. So you need to create a deficit of 3,500 calories a week to meet this goal - or a 500 calorie deficit each day.

Now wait! Before you throw in the towel before even beginning please realise the following:

• Your body burns roughly 1,500 calories each day just sitting around, to meet daily metabolic requirements.
  
  
• An average active woman eats about 2,000 calories every day.
  
  
• Eating smaller meals more frequently is more efficient in providing proper nutrition and fuel for your workout.
  
  
• Eat three small meals a day, plus healthy snacks, you keep hunger on an even keel and your metabolism runs at an even rate.
  
  
• Find low-fat/low-calorie substitutes for some of the rich items in your diet: use mustard instead of mayonnaise cuts 85 calories off your turkey sandwich, skim milk saves 90 calories per cup over whole milk, pretzels are 50 calories lighter than potato chips, and lemon juice or vinegar on your salad saves 100 calories over regular dressing.

Here are some of the best calorie-burning workouts
- do two or three a week

LONG RUNS or WALKS
Run or walk slowly for at least 45 minutes to an hour. The slow pace - which puts your metabolism in the fat-burning zone - coupled with the long period of time maximizes total fat burning. A 90 minute long run for a 140 pound woman can burn more than 1,000 calories.

TEMPO RUNS or WALKS
Long runs are great, but you can't do them every day. Variety also adds to greater fitness and lower risk of injury. The faster you run or walk in 20 or 30 minutes, the more fat you'll burn, because your total energy cost is up. So go harder, faster, for a shorter time: complete 5 minutes slow (warm up), go hard for 10 minutes, easy for two minutes (recovery), repeat two or three times. A 30 minute tempo run can burn more than 400 calories for a 140 pound woman.

HILLS or HIKING
After a 5 minute warmup, do 5 to 10 of these intense intervals (one to three minutes in duration, hills at about 6 degrees on your treadmill or steep incline). Try a hike instead of the seawall adding variety and fat burning efficiency. You can burn as much as 200 to 500 extra calories working at this intense rate without adding impact in a 30 to 60 minute workout.

START WEIGHT TRAINING
By adding a once or twice weekly weight training session to your schedule you not only burn more calories working out (115 every 30 minutes) but also just sitting around. That's because as you add muscle, your resting metabolism rises. So you'll burn more calories.