Certified Personal Trainer NCSF (National Council of Sports & Fitness)

Personal Training

Charlieyoga Personal Training focuses on the individual's complete needs to synergize the many modalities listed below to enhance health and well-being of the client. It operates from the understanding that the human body-mind is a wholistic system involving the complete being. As in my yoga practice Personal Training is a shamanistic practice, meaning I practice what I teach.

1. Yoga

Yoga is the beginning and end of personal training. In the beginning a client can best be evaluated by completing a yoga practice. This will determine strength, stamina, flexibility and stress of the individual. Ultimately the client should be targetted for an intermediate yoga and meditation practice for health maintenance for the remainder of the incarnation.

2. Pilates

Mat Pilates completes Yoga for our modern western bodies. Pilates emphasis on core strength overcomes the weakness of sitting in chairs with backs on them. The original yogis never sat in chairs and developed yoga without that in mind. The rehabilitation and compensation for chair sitting makes Pilates and Yoga a needed unified practice. The core work of Pilates is always needed in the personal training domain.

3. Martial Arts

Martial Arts is another complimentary practice with Yoga and Pilates. Martial Arts slow flow practice of an exercise series called Kata works the slow twitch muscles. It also helps enhance concentration, which is part of the foundation of Meditation practice.

4. Meditation

Meditation is simple yet difficult to practice. Every exercise practice can be a moving meditation if practiced with complete concentration on the body in the now. The words are relatively simple the actual execution requires enormous mastery.

5. Weight Training

In personal training we are seeking to progress the client. Progressive weight training is an excellent way to gradually increase strength in a target area. The body responds naturally to gradual change, reducing the chance of injury.

6. NeuroSoma Massage

NeuroSoma Massage may be needed to deal with hardened, hypertonic muscles and their related pain and weakness prior to personal training or while an exercise protocol is being practiced. Ideally the training practice will not produce more hypertonic muscles, but it does happen. Muscle anatomy insights are also provided by the theory underlying NeuroSoma Massage.

7. Nutrition

My dietary practice I call "Slacker Vegetarianism". At the grocery store and at home I eat a vegetarian diet. On the road or at a restaurant I eat what looks like the best and healthiest food available. Vegetarianism is my preferred practice under ideal conditions but I feel it should not be a punishment or a privation. So for me it isn't.

Fasting is another preferred practice that is not always in my best interest. So I fast when it works energetically.

Vitamin supplementation is something I have done for a long time. I have arrived at the table below as my daily protocol. Vitamin D, FRS, Bilberry, Ginseng and Homeopathic HGH seem to have the most notable effects on my body and mind. The other supplements seem to have a more subtle influence. If something makes me uneasy or seems to have a negative effect on me I abandon it, recently Vitamin B3 caused itching and flushing I replaced it with a non-flushing form of Vitamin B3, Niacinamide with very positive results. I also do not supplement with vitamin A which seems to be antagonistic to Vitamin D's immune function for me, this is why I do not use a multi-vitamin because they all have large doses of Vitamin A.

I recommend to my clients to work on self-awareness. How does a diet feel on you? I share how it is for me with the idea that everyone should find their own way. Hearing the way taken by others has helped me clarify my own path on diet and all aspects of my life.