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Fitness For Freedom Tips

Fitness For Freedom Tips is a new type of fitness and health show. We deliver fitness tips that you can apply to your life right away in 10 minutes or less. Lets face it you’re busy and life pulls you in all directions. You want to be healthier, but living a healthier lifestyle is hard. It requires you to change and there is a lot of misinformation out there. We work hard to syphon through it to give you the most sound advice possible and set you up for the greatest chance of success. Jonathan Chant has been working with people to live healthier lives for 10 years now and he’s seen it all. That’s why he founded Fitness For Freedom, your complete online fitness training and lifestyle design community. He pulls out all the stops to help you make the changes yourself. No transformation challenges, no extreme changes just solid strategies to help you make changes that will stick for the rest of your life. Change is constant and you’re going to have lots of questions as you go along that’s why we keep our episodes short so they don’t ‘eat in’ to your already ‘stretched’ lives (puns intended). We try to have some fun with it too! Exercise doesn’t have to be boring? So what are you waiting for? If you’re still reading this you’re definitely interested in the show, so give it a listen.
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Now displaying: Category: Fitness
Aug 7, 2017

If you’re new to the show welcome, if you’ve been listening for a while thanks for coming back we appreciate that you’ve taken time out of your busy day to listen and hope that in return you get some valuable information and some things that you can apply into your everyday life to be the healthiest and most active version of yourself.

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve done a must read episode and that’s simply because I haven’t read a book that I felt was compelling enough to feature, until now. I got ahold of this book and have been recommending it to many of our clients because it’s that good - The End of Diabetes by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.

 

I know, diabetes is scary, lots of people have it, lots of people are susceptible to it and most people think the only thing you can do about it is take lots of medication. Of course the way things are set up in the medical system doesn’t help, because that’s how most doctors manage it with their patients, they prescribe drugs like metformin and insulin, which in most cases does help someone with Type 2 Diabetes control their blood sugar, but what makes matters worse is this gives someone with diabetes the false sense that everything is okay, because the numbers on their glucometer say everything is okay, but the reality is it’s only a bandaid solution that in the long run makes the situation much, much worse and if you’re a Type 2 diabetic that requires insulin it’s the beginning of the end for you and that’s a harsh reality that most people aren’t willing to face. If you have Type 2 diabetes you’re at an increased risk of having a heart attack and  getting kidney disease, both of which have the negative side effect of death. There’s also the less deadly, but still severe increased risk of nerve damage which will make it harder to walk and hold things in your hands, as well, amputations and vision loss are also more likely to happen if you have diabetes.  That’s how the book starts, well it’s a summary of how it starts, but I think you get the gist of it.

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Aug 2, 2017

Leg Laments - I have bowed legs, are there certain types of exercises I should avoid doing for a full body workout?

Can’t Stay Still - I find exercises like the plank or wall sit - where I’m just standing still - pretty boring and hard to maintain because I get so bored. Are there more active alternatives?

Andrew - How soon after a broken foot injury should I be getting back into exercise? I play soccer and while I definitely won’t be playing this summer I don’t want to lose my ability over time.

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Ways to Make the Plank more Interesting

Jul 26, 2017

Now-What-Sheri - A few years ago I trained for climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. I was 49 and successful! A big bucket list check mark. Since then my exercise habits have gone downhill, become sporadic and sometimes nonexistent. I just can’t seem to find that motivation. I expected it for a few months after achieving my goal, but it’s now going on for a few years. Any suggestions for getting out of this exercise funk?

Starting my Journey - Right now I’m definitely not in shape to be doing much exercise - I was wondering if yoga is a good starting point for me. Does yoga have any other benefit for you than your flexibility? Should I look elsewhere to start getting fit?

Sean - There was a period of time where I was really sick so I stopped exercising and I lost some of my progress. I think I’ve more or less got back to where I was, but was it a mistake to completely stop exercising while I was ill?

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Jul 24, 2017

I know a lot of you listening right now are unemotionally and objectively stepping back and thinking, who is this crazy guy and why on earth would he want to do so much running, but we all have our ‘running’ activities. For some people it might be an unhealthy obsession with getting a heavier and heavier bench press or deadlift to the point of chronic ‘on-again off-again’ injuries. For some people it might be an overly aggressive calculation of calories in and calories out, I think we’ve all witnessed and possibly been this person that meticulously measures their food, tracks very specifically the amount of calories they burn and weighs themselves every day, possibly multiple times a day. To stretch this a little bit further what about the person who works for 10,12 and possibly 14 or more hours a day on a consistent basis, because there are always things to get done, or what about the person who obsessively watches, just one more episode of a T.V show, 3 or 4 times an evening and sometimes over entire weekends where it consumes their entire lives.

As I go through these examples, it’s probably easy for you to unemotionally and objectively step back and say people that fall into one of those categories are imbalanced, until I got to the example that in some way applied to you and even if none of those examples did, there’s a good chance you spend more time than you should doing a single activity.

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Jul 19, 2017

Soda Blues - I’m trying to cut back on pop but water just doesn’t taste very good. I’ve even tries flavoured water and it’s pretty bland. I want to get better but the options don’t seem to taste as good. What should I do?

 

Inconsistent and Annoyed - My exercise habits are terrible. I’ll have lots of motivation for a little while and then I’ll lose it again, so I never make any real progress. I need a more manageable way to exercise that will also make me WANT to exercise.

 

Ow My Back - I very easily get low back pain, it seems to happen a lot. Is there a way that I can prevent - not reduce - back pain?

 

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Jul 17, 2017

I recently returned from the Perform Better Summit in Providence Rhode Island. There were lots of great speakers there and I now have several new tools to put in my tool belt. My best guess is the next 3 or 4 Monday episodes I will devote an entire show to one or two main concepts that I think will be the most relevant for you, starting with this one about mental toughness presented by John Brookfield.

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The Hand Plank for Mental Toughness

The Crab Walk

Jul 12, 2017

Comparative - I have a habit of comparing myself to other people in the gym which tends to make me feel bad, because I’m not as good as them. How do I get myself in the mindset that I don’t need to pay attention to them, if that’s all I can see when I go in?

 

Mental Mystery - How does exercise make you feel better? I’ve heard it helps with depression, how does that work?

 

Snack Fitness - What should you NOT eat before or after an exercise? I feel like I need to eat something before working out but I don’t want to eat the wrong thing.

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Jul 5, 2017

Magically Nutritious - I was just wondering about nutritional labels, you’ve done some videos on them and mention a lot of minerals and vitamins - what are the most important ones to be looking out for?

 

JR - I spend about 1.5 to 2 hours a day driving for my daily commute. Do you have any suggestions, besides listening to your podcast, to use this time productively towards fitness goals? Maybe some exercises or stretches that can be safely done while driving or some common ergonomic problems that I should try to avoid?

 

Ready for Greatness - I’m preparing to run my first 10K. Is there anything I should keep in mind, certain ways I should train, anything I should avoid doing?

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Jul 3, 2017

If you’re new to the show welcome, if you’ve been listening for a while thanks for coming back we appreciate that you’ve taken time out of your busy day to listen and hope that in return you get some valuable information and some things that you can apply into your everyday life to be the healthiest and most active version of yourself.

One of our trainer’s Richard just started working with a new client and after their first session she came on our facebook page and posted this and I quote:

Thank you Richard, a bit of torture today but I feel great 

A client I used to work with that was trying to lose weight, would eat a bag of potato chips everyday in the afternoon for a snack, not a little bag, a big bag and after months of trying different strategies to get her to not stop, but just eat less or a smaller bag, I finally asked her why she needed to eat potato chips everyday and her response was - Because I don’t want to suffer and to me not eating chips is suffering.    

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Jun 26, 2017

If you’re new to the show welcome, if you’ve been listening for a while thanks for coming back we appreciate that you’ve taken time out of your busy day to listen and hope that in return you get some valuable information and some things that you can apply into your everyday life to be the healthiest and most active version of yourself.

Before we get into the main part of the show I just want to take a minute to extend a special thanks to Sheri for alerting us to an audio issue that had been occurring for the last 10 episodes or so and giving us the very specific time of when it was happening. Thank you for helping us instead of saying screw you and leaving a negative review, we really appreciate that.

Now, onto the show.

One of our trainer’s, Richard, has a client that he has been working with once a week for a few months. Over this time he found that the client was really devoted and putting in a full effort for their one hour session together, but was having trouble doing the workout when Richard wasn't there directly supervising him. Some trainers may have given this client a hard time and tried to shame or guilt them into doing the workout, other’s might aggressively say, you have to make yourself do it, because you know you should do it, other trainers might take a more passive approach and have the client use a strategy like putting their gym clothes on first thing in the morning and reminding themselves of how good they’ll feel after they’re done. But not Richard he said nothing like that, instead he asked this question.

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Jun 21, 2017

Enthuzed but Confused - How much water should I be drinking after and during an exercise routine? Especially a very intense one where I’m sweating a lot.

No Free Time - I’ve been exercising for about 4 months, 3 days a week. Now, I have less time than I used to, and I need to cut back on how much exercising I’m doing. Should I keep to 3 days and exercise for less time, or cut back to one intense day?

Mom Problems - My kids spend a lot of time on the computer, and I want to get them more interested in being active. How can I get their attention? 

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Jun 19, 2017

As some of you know I played hockey while I was growing up and continued to play men’s league or beer league hockey until a few years ago when I had to give it up, because the games are too late and I’ve been devoting most of my time to growing Fitness For Freedom and my family. Playing late night hockey was starting to wear me down and burn me out. So I hadn’t played for a few years when I recently got the call to fill in, ‘Hey, Jonny we have an 8:30 game this Thursday, you think you could make it?’ to which I responded, ‘Gordo, that is the only day and time that is even possible, so I’ll do it.’

It was only a couple days away which didn’t give me much time to train, if you’ve ever played hockey after an extended absence you know that it doesn’t matter how many leg exercises you do, hockey makes your legs a different kind of sore no matter what and my Friday morning squash game was already feeling it. So on the Wednesday night instead of doing a race pace run on a flat surface like I usually do, I ran to the quarry by my house and did interval wind sprints up and down the hill, 10 times at which point I almost vomited and decided to call it a night. The next day when I hit the ice I felt like a million bucks, I could skate well and my legs were only mildly sore at the end of the game, which for me is unheard of after such a long time off, and I attribute it to the hills I ran the day before and it also got me thinking. Hardly anyone does hill training which is unfortunate because there are so many benefits than just not being sore after your hockey game the next day, so day we have the Top 3 reasons everybody she incorporate hills into their training program no matter what.

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Jun 14, 2017

Fitness With Friends - I’ve been exercising with a friend for a few months now; but now she keeps skipping out on me. I don’t really like going alone, but I do want to keep exercising, and I don’t have many other people to reach out to. How can I keep my friend interested?

Too Young For This - I sit forward a lot, and I have really bad posture that I want to fix. What’s a good quick exercise I can do to help with my posture? I want something effective that will actually last, but won’t take too long each day.

Foodstuff - If my goal is just to lose weight, is it necessary to exercise, or would it be enough if I only eat healthy?

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Exercises We Covered

Jun 12, 2017

About 10 years ago when we first started our in-home personal training company, one of my co-workers from my previous job hired me to design his exercise program.  He was having some kind of an early 20’s crisis and decided he needed to quit smoking, stop drinking, eat healthfully, start exercising, go to bed earlier and lose weight all in one shot. He was pumped, promised himself this time was going to be different and he basically turned his life upside down. We did a few sessions together until we were both comfortable with how well he was doing the exercises and that he understood everything, why the program was structured the way it was, intensities etc. and we were supposed to get back together about 4 weeks later to update his program. Unfortunately I never heard from him again, until two years ago when I bumped into him at a conference centre here in town. He had put on about 50 pounds since I had last seen him and he’ed started smoking again, possibly he never legitimately stopped. I was disappointed, not in him, but in the fact I know he wants to change, but here is something inside of him that is preventing that from happening.

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Jun 7, 2017

Janice4Tennis - A year ago I had been stretching for about 3 months, using a variety of stretches and techniques (sometimes with a partner), but I stopped, and lost about all of my flexibility. I stretch mainly for tennis. I want to get it back if I can, where do I start?

Fit Frank - Are push-ups a good pre-workout exercise before lifting weights?

Lethargy Sucks - I work at an office, and when I’m home spend a lot of time on the computer. I do exercise, but sometimes I have a hard time stopping if I’m on a roll with my personal projects. What are some quick and easy exercises I can do so I can keep my mind focused?

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Jun 5, 2017

Welcome and thanks for stopping by, we appreciate that you’ve taken time out of your busy day to listen and hope that in return you get some valuable information or insight that you can apply into your everyday life to be the healthiest and most active version of yourself.

 

In my last year of University I separated my shoulder in a snowboarding accident, I was hurt bad enough that I was unable to lift weights for several months, but after about 1 month I was able to run again, so I dedicated myself to that and started running 5 days a week. It’s probably the only point in my life where I considered myself a legitimate runner and by my standards I was getting very fast running between 5 and 8km, until I started getting pain in the arch of my foot.  At the time I wasn’t sure how to deal with it, but by happenstance I read an article in Men’s Health where they were interviewing Ray Zahab for running tips, for those of you that don’t know Ray is an ultra marathoner that at the time was running 6000 miles across the Sahara desert. In this article he said the best way to run injury free was to keep your pelvis inline to in front of your chest, so I started doing that and interestingly enough the pain in the arch of my foot subsided immediately and I was able to continue running, but initially I slowed down until I got used to this new running stride and adapted for it.

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May 31, 2017

Carter - What is a healthy amount of weight to lose within a month? I’d like to lose a lot of course, but I don’t want to overdo it and I also want realistic goals.

 

Holly - I’m trying to eat better. One of my favourite snacks that I’m having a hard time letting go of is chocolate with peanut butter. I know that it’s really bad for my goals but I don’t know how to let go. What should I do to get my mind off it?


Linn - I’m tired all of the time, even though I get a lot of sleep. Is this something that being more active/exercising can help fix?

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May 29, 2017

When I first started running I didn't care as much about the speed as I did about the distance, I just wanted to be able to run from start to finish whether it was 2 miles, 4 miles and sometimes even 8 miles my goal was to finish it without walking, but at a certain point the distance wasn't enough for me and I wanted to do it fast, not just faster, as fast as I possibly could regardless of the distance. Which required me to change up how I was running.

 

Today we’re talking running speed and the top 5 ways you can increase yours, now if you’re not interested in running and prefer other endurance sports or training activities like swimming, cycling, cross country skiing or snowshoeing, no need to the channel just yet, because every one of these techniques can be applied to your training as well.

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May 24, 2017

Tom - What kind of issues can having bad form in squats result in? I’m mostly wondering for people who add weight to their squats.

 

Lucas - How can I train to be a good basketball player? What are some good exercises?


Deb - My form for golf is absolutely terrible, it’s mostly an issue of my balance. How can I train to better myself?

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Exercise Demos We Covered in This Episode

May 22, 2017

Mother’s Day just passed, where for the first time my wife got to celebrate being a Mother. I took the day off work, and looked after our son Cooper in the morning so she could sleep in, we went to family brunch together, played a game while Cooper was having his afternoon nap and then we had another family dinner that night. I got her, I mean Cooper got her flowers and made a card for her describing his life and how his mom plays and has played such a key role in it up until now. I thought the day had gone pretty well, until two days after...

 

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May 18, 2017

 

Vanessa - Whenever I study after I exercise, I seem to be able to get more done and retain more. Does exercise make the brain work harder?

 

Jody - As a diabetic who hates vegetables, and I really mean hates, what is the best way for me to lose weight? I will eat some veggies like corn and broccoli.

 

Kyle - I’m looking for good ways to lose weight. Right now, I ride the bus to work, but my plan is to start cycling to and from work now that the weather’s nicer. How much will that do to help me lose weight?

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May 15, 2017

If you’ve been listening for a while we appreciate your continued support and if you’re new, welcome. Either way thanks for stopping by. Last Monday we had an episode scheduling issue, where we accidently posted Episode 255 again instead of 265, I apologize for that. We did get the intended episode out on Thursday so hopefully you caught that. Today’s episode is a carry over from that, the top 5 mistakes beginner runners make, let’s get to it.

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May 10, 2017

Grace - I am diabetic, but I want to start training with a personal trainer. Is there anything I should watch out for before I start exercising?

 

Kelly - I really enjoy dancing, but I was wondering how much it can actually help you lose weight compared to typical exercise and training?

 

Michael - I’m going to be taking a vacation soon, and I’m not sure if I trust myself to follow an exercise routine during that time. I’ll be away for 2 weeks - I’ve been exercising regularly for several months and have made progress - how much progress will I lose in those 2 weeks?

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May 8, 2017

Thanks for stopping by, if you’ve been listening for a while we appreciate your continued support and if you’re new, welcome. Normally on the show I talk about something a client may be struggling with, techniques you can use to make your exercise routine more effective and strategies you can use to make healthier food choices, but today we’re going to do something a bit different. Today I talk with Kyle Paterson. Kyle got his Kinesiology degree from McGill University and he’s one of our personal personal trainer’s. Although Kyle was an avid athlete when he was growing up after he graduated from high school he put his fitness on hold and I think it’s fair to say his health really took a backseat in terms of his priorities.  What makes Kyle’s situation a bit different or unique is that he didn’t go directly into Kinesiology when he graduated high school, he took social sciences and it wasn’t until his mid 20’s when his health took a serious nose dive, that he really started to look at how he was living and it wasn’t until then that he transferred into the Kinesiology program. It was during this time that he registered for his first half marathon and since this is the beginning of running season and I know there are lots of people who are going to try running for the first time, I thought you might find his experience relatable, interesting and you might find some of the strategies that he used to stay motivated useful.

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May 3, 2017

Marc - What are some arm exercises I can do despite having arthritis in my thumb joints? I want to get stronger, but I don’t want to hurt myself.

 

Julie - I am a vegan trying to lose body fat. I’m trying soy protein powder since otherwise I can’t reach my daily protein goal. Can I eat a little something while drinking a protein shake, like a slice of whole wheat bread with a teaspoon of peanut butter or sugar free jam? I would plan to consider these calories as part of the amount I should eat in a day.


Zack - Is it better to eat protein, or carbs after a workout?

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