Cutting Edge Personal Training

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

Most people who are trying to eat more protein focus on one number:

HOW MUCH DID I EAT TODAY?

That's important.

But I'd also pay attention to WHERE YOU'RE PUTTING IT.

A common pattern looks something like this:

Breakfast: 10g
Lunch: 20g
Dinner: 60g
Snacks: mostly carbs and fat

Instead, try building 3-4 MEALS OR FEEDINGS AROUND A MEANINGFUL SERVING OF PROTEIN.

For many active adults, something in the neighborhood of 25-40+ GRAMS PER MEAL is a useful starting point, depending on your size and total daily needs.

That could mean:

Eggs + Greek yogurt at breakfast.

Chicken at lunch.

A protein shake in the afternoon.

Beef or fish at dinner.

Your total daily protein still matters most.

But distributing it across the day gives your muscles multiple opportunities to get the amino acids they need for repair and growth.

DON'T SAVE ALMOST ALL OF YOUR PROTEIN FOR DINNER.

— Coach Jim

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO STILL BE ABLE TO DO AT 80?

Not what do you want to *ook like.

What do you want to still be able to DO?

Get up off the floor without help?

Carry your own groceries?

Travel?

Play with your grandkids?

Climb a flight of stairs without thinking twice?

Keep doing the things you love without your body deciding otherwise?

We tend to think about exercise in terms of what it can do for us right now.

But every workout you're doing today is also quietly influencing what your body will be capable of 10, 20, even 30 years from now.

That's what last week's newsletter was about.

And regardless of your age, I think it's a question worth thinking about.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO STILL BE ABLE TO DO AT 80?

Read it here 👇

👉 https://coach-jims-get-fit-newsletter.beehiiv.com/p/what-do-you-want-to-still-be-able-to-do-at-80

If you'd like more practical thoughts on training, health, and staying capable for the long haul, you can **subscribe at the bottom of the article** and I'll send the next one straight to your inbox.

Your Body at 80: The Fitness Choices That Matter Most Crack the longevity code: Train for your 80-year-old self. Discover why today's workouts are silent deposits into your future body's capability and strength.

💪 We spend a lot of time talking about what strength training can ADD to your body.

Muscle.

Strength.

Better body composition.

But as we get older, I'm equally interested in what it helps us KEEP.

The strength to get off the floor.

Carry groceries.

Climb stairs.

Move furniture.

Travel.

Play with your kids or grandkids.

Continue doing things for yourself.

Muscle mass and strength naturally tend to decline as we age—but strength training gives us a powerful tool to push back against that decline.

That's why I don't view lifting weights as something reserved for people trying to build impressive physiques.

STRENGTH GIVES YOU OPTIONS.

And the older you get, the more valuable those options become.

Train for the body you want today.

But also train for the life you want 10, 20 and 30 years from now.

— Coach Jim

💪 HERE'S A TRAINING TECHNIQUE WORTH HAVING IN YOUR TOOLBOX: PAUSE REPS.

Instead of immediately reversing direction at the bottom of an exercise, deliberately pause for 1–2 seconds.

Then perform the rep normally.

Try it on movements like:

• squats
• bench presses
• leg presses
• push-ups
• certain rows

Why use them?

A pause removes some of the momentum and rebound you can normally use to change direction.

That forces you to create more force from a dead—or at least much quieter—position.

It can also expose something useful:

DO YOU ACTUALLY CONTROL THE BOTTOM OF THE MOVEMENT, OR ARE YOU JUST PASSING THROUGH IT?

You don't need pause reps on everything.

But they're a great way to improve control, reinforce positioning, and make a lighter load surprisingly challenging.

Try a true two-second pause sometime.

Two seconds is longer than you think.

— Coach Jim

🍽️ YOU DON'T HAVE TO STOP EATING AT RESTAURANTS TO MAKE PROGRESS.

Here's a simple approach I like:

1️⃣ START WITH PROTEIN.

Build the meal around chicken, fish, lean beef, shrimp, eggs or another solid protein source.

2️⃣ PICK YOUR EXTRA.

This is where restaurant meals can get away from you.

Drinks + appetizer + bread + large entrée + dessert can turn one meal into several meals' worth of calories.

You don't necessarily need to skip everything.

CHOOSE WHAT YOU ACTUALLY WANT.

Maybe it's the appetizer.

Maybe it's dessert.

Maybe it's a couple of drinks.

Enjoy it.

3️⃣ GO RIGHT BACK TO NORMAL.

Don't skip breakfast the next day.

Don't punish yourself with cardio.

And don't decide the entire weekend is ruined.

Just eat normally again.

A MEAL OUT SHOULD BE PART OF YOUR LIFE - - NOT THE BEGINNING OF ANOTHER DIET RESTART.

— Coach Jim