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Your Health & Fitness Questions Answered

Training Questions

  • You should definitely eat SOMETHING before your workout. Your body needs fuel (food) to perform and if your tank is empty you will quickly lose steam and not be able to do your best at your workout. You will also struggle to build muscle and recover because your body is starting out depleted. What you should eat also depends on your personal preference,gut sensitivity, allergies, etc.. so it’s going to be different for everybody. What everyone needs, though, is

    carbs and water.. Carbohydrates are your body’s primary source of energy.

    Hydration happens not just before your workout but all day every day so how much you need before a workout depends on the time of day and how hydrated or not hydrated you are already. You also need a small amount of protein and fat for recovery and sustained energy. Examples: Banana and peanut butter, protein shake with a 4-1 ratio of carbs to protein (more carbs than protein), Toast with nut butter, Oatmeal with berries and nuts. The timing of your workout will dictate what you eat. If it’s an early morning workout you might want a few sips of a shake or that piece of toast with peanut butter and a few slices of banana. If it’s an evening workout and you’ve had a balanced meal within the last 90 minutes, a handful of raisins or a date will likely do the trick. Fueling for your workout takes some experimenting to find out how much and what you can eat that gives you energy but also agrees with your personal gut health and digestion.

  • It’s most important that you are comfortable in what you’re wearing for your workout. We recommend breathable, wicking clothes that allow you to move freely and that are comfortable to sweat in. If you have clothes designed specifically to work out in, wear those! 

    Remember that even when it’s cold outside you will warm up once you start moving, so be ready to drop layers in the colder months. 

    We encourage you to workout without shoes whenever it is safe to do so, such as at the Spears Strong Lab. Shoes can limit how much movement your feet are actually getting, and your feet are involved in your workout! Our floors are padded and even folks who have a history of plantar fasciitis or aching arches often find they can comfortably workout with no shoes on our floors. If you choose to workout in socks, we recommend socks with sticky pads on the soles, as some movements can be tougher and a little bit slippery in socks. 

    Anytime you are coming into the Lab we ask that you wear shoes intended for training indoors or running/walking on pavement. Trail shoes, spikes, cleats and heels will not be allowed in the Lab (even if you are planning to take them off for your workout, even if you are not coming in for a workout). 

  • Simple answer, your Warm Up should prepare you for your sport or activity and your Cool Down should be designed to help flush left over waste product as well as release and lengthen muscles that have been used during your sport or activity.

    Unfortunately, most Warm Ups and Cool Downs are only focused on your heart rate. At Spears Strong Warm Ups and Cool Downs fall under an overarching category called ReStarts. We define a ReStart as a moment in time, or amount of time used, to bring your body and mind into union with reality to be fully available to take on the next moments of your life fully engaged to the best of your abilities.

    Read the full in-depth explanation of why you should warmup and cooldown on our blog!

  • The easiest way to explain Spears Strong’s Training Philosophy is supplying our definition of Training in the Spears Strong Mentorship Program:

    Training (def) – the sorting and organizing of all of the stimulus needed to fill in the gaps of missing daily movement or to balance out the required repetitive movement of living in a modern world into individual progressive daily routines or rituals that are stimulating and achievable and leaving us available to take on our daily challenges and goals feeling good, energized with focus, and pain free.

    This is a long way of saying we believe the best ability for each of our clients is availability to pursue what they love about life with energy while feeling good. 

    Most training programs focus on mostly “pushing harder for” whatever the trainer and/or gym are interested in. Go harder on the spin bike. Get your heartrate up into the right zone on our monitors. Go deeper into the stretch. Hold the plank longer. How many rounds of today’s workout can you do? But are any of these “pushing harder for” disciplines getting you closer to being yourself or getting closer to being just another one of them? Or even worse, an injured one of them.

    So rather than “pushing harder for” whatever we are into, we construct all of our workouts through our Spears Strong Workout Parameters so you can have the confidence to know your workout with us will be supportive and exactly what your body needs. 

    Without getting too deep into the details (that’s what our mentorship program is for- coming soon!), the following is an outline of how each and every workout session is created by Spears Strong Trainers:

    Spears Strong’s Workout Parameters 

    • Structure Eight Movement Patterns

    • Plan For Failure Points

      • Organization

      • ReStart

      • Limitations/Injuries

    • Connect Muscular & Nervous Systems

    Every workout that happens at Spears Strong whether it be Group, Small Group, Individual, Workshop, Outside, Inside and everything in between is designed following the previous guidelines. This assures you that every workout you participate in at Spears Strong is not only going to be a well balanced full body workout for your fitness level but even more importantly, it’s not going to leave you in pain or injured.

    One workout alone does not create changes! To make sure you have workouts at home or while traveling that are ideal for your current fitness level and fitness goals we have created an online library of specific virtual workouts to keep the questions of what you should be doing in your trainers hands rather than you have to figure it out yourself. With confidence that even at home or traveling virtual workouts will leave you feeling energized, focused and good.

    You can finally let go of “how should I exercise today?” and instead use that decision making time and energy on things in your professional life or on the people and activities you love. Spears Strong workouts are designed to align your body and let you free your mind to live the best version of you, in confidence that your workouts are exactly what you need to be the best version of you. 

  • We do offer weight, or resistance training at Spears Strong. As you’re probably aware, at Spears Strong our workouts are Designed to Align and follow our Structure Eight Movement Patterns philosophy to guarantee every workout you do with us will not just challenge you for your level of fitness but it is also guaranteed not to leave you injured or closer to injury. 

    When most people think of weight, or resistance training a lot of times they think of dumb bells, kettlebells, medicine balls and the like. Often overlooked with weight, or resistance training, though, is leveraging your own body weight, and this is where we start our clients at Spears Strong.

    Lifting weights can definitely increase your strength and muscle mass if done correctly and there are plenty of gyms that start there and provide that, but that’s not our style. There are multiple hidden layers of benefits by starting and always incorporating body weight training into every workout. The first is more confidence in how to move and use your own body which increases your coordination and dynamic ability in life to not fail, because you’re Spears Strong.

    Meaning less risk of falling or failing in both your everyday life and any special goals you may be training for, but also the confidence within yourself to know if you do fall you have the ability on your own to get back up.

    There is a proper way to do every body weight movement correctly and our goal at Spears Strong is to help you do every body weight movement biomechanically correctly before moving on to using equipment to add or aid in resistance training. 

    Every client starts at a different level of fitness which means the time to mastery of your own body varies and Spears Strong Trainers have a trained eye and a developed understanding of modifying and progressing every session to meet their client’s fitness ability. 

    Another hidden benefit of body weight training, since Spears Strong Trainers do the same or similar workouts to our clients, we know how to cue our clients to increase their proprioception of their bodies in real life, or again, not fail. We simply call it, “Practice when it’s easy.”

    We’ll help you activate and then connect to your glutes of your back leg during a lunge, shoulder blades engaging during a roller coaster or feet staying relaxed and grounded to earth during storks making it easier for you to connect with earth through your feet, engage your glutes and pull from your shoulder blades while serving a tennis ball, volleyball, swinging a golf club or  even frisbee golf along with any other dynamic sport or activity you might enjoy.

    When you have mastered your own body, your posture and spine are not compromised by dynamic movements, or failures and your body is trending towards alignment, Spears Strong Trainers will progress their clients to using equipment. But just like there is a proper way to do body weight exercises there are also proper ways to use equipment, no matter what kind it is, and failing with equipment can have more drastic consequences than body weight movements.

    Even worse, failing with equipment can not only injure you but it can also injure people around you. Let’s face it, an injury is the worst outcome and complete opposite of the whole point of working out, or training.

    To keep you, and others, injury free while using equipment at Spears Strong, some equipment is only offered in Small Group Training or Personal Training. With both Small Group Training and Personal Training our Spears Strong Trainers are able to not just have the ability to cue every exercise or movement but to also be able to keep each client, or your form, in check to get the most out of your training. This also allows our trainers to make sure the training area is safe for everyone who is participating in the workout so there is not the accidental run into each other with equipment, drop a weight or accidental anything.

    So yes, yes we do offer weight, or resistance training.

WE HAVE ANSWERS!

Health Coaching Questions

  • Let me answer your question with a question. What was the last bad habit you kicked or good habit you created, and was it easy? 

    Behavior change is hard, really, really hard. In fact, as humans our brains are wired for saving energy and they love to create default systems so we can run on auto-pilot as much as possible. “We are what we repeatedly do,” as Aristotle says. 

    Most often the habits we created at one point in our lives - probably as emotional teens - no longer serve us. They’re shortcuts we created to put off exercise, avoid our fears or eat our feelings. They’re really, really hard to break and it’s equally hard to create brand new ones that serve us better. 

    Enter the Health Coach. While Health Coaching provides help in pretty much all aspects of life, the term itself is to the point.. A Health Coach guides, supports and encourages you to make positive changes in your life that improve your health, fitness and quality of living. 

    At Spears Strong, our Health Coaching includes interactive lessons, empowering conversations, engaging challenges and effective goal setting. Our staff works as a team so your coach is always communicating with your trainer and vice versa. The Health Coaches coordinate your health and fitness schedule as well as guide you through all the areas of health & fitness, since they all matter: sleep, nutrition, exercise, mindset and more. 

    It’s also important when describing Health Coaching to  explain what it is not. A Health Coach is not a therapist, or a dietitian. We are not prescribing and diagnosing or creating a meal plan for you. 

    Rather, our Health Coaching is designed to give you agency over the most important thing in life - your health. You will learn self-management through a process of finding out who you are and who you want to be. To quote another great, Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.’ 

    We also break down all those parts of health and fitness - sleep, movement, breathing, mindset and more … into doable steps that you tackle at your pace - with a little push of course. We hold you accountable but we are not teachers. You are not getting a grade or being scolded for work undone. Through our Health Coaching we help you find the desire it takes to make the hard changes and we help you set up routines and rituals to keep it going for the long-term.

  • Staying healthy when it’s smokey outside or the air quality is poor really means doing all the things we focus on at Spears Strong, with an emphasis on relieving stress and doing mellower movement! It’s also about staying informed on air quality. It’s not something we see often on the news or social media so you’ve got to be your own journalist and do a little investigating. Even when there’s not an official air quality alert or the weather looks sunny and inviting, the air can still be unhealthy and even dangerous. Read the full blog post on this topic here.

    • Monitor AQI levels (pollutants) daily - This number can change day to day and even hour to hour and can be different than areas even a couple miles away from you. 

      • We use and recommend this app called AirCare (no affiliation) and we love it (beware it’s addictive). It updates every hour, they pull data from stations near to you and keep an average from multiple stations to ensure accuracy. It also gives you predictions for what may happen in the coming hours. It also has a map to see nearby air quality and fires. Below is the range used by AirCare. There are several apps out there and governments track it and provide information as well. You may see variations in the ranges due to how they calculate air quality.

      • If you have to go outside when levels are unhealthy, consider wearing a pollution mask.

    <50 Air is good: get outside! 

    <100 Moderate: reduce intensive outdoors activities. If this number is in the high range we will not go for a run and opt for a mellow walk and indoor exercise. 

    >100 poor to very poor air quality (close doors and stay inside)

    >200 Hazardous (close doors, windows and follow tips below for reducing smoke indoors)

    “I always go for my morning walk, and I always check on my phone: what is the air quality index for today? If it’s below 50, you are in a good or green color of the AQI. If it’s between 50 and 100, it’s yellow, like the moderate pollution. And then above 100 is when I avoid leaving the house because that’s where it starts getting a little bit unhealthy to be outside,” Edson Severnini, economist at Carnegie-Mellon University, says.

    We agree.

    We will close our windows at the high range of moderate because our cat has asthma and is sensitive to pollutants and smoke. Anything over 100 Jonathan and I pretty much stay inside. Once it starts getting into the very poor to hazardous range we do everything we can to stay inside and improve indoor air quality.

    • Exercise safely. When air quality is poor to hazardous it is not the time to push yourself. Hold off on high intensity workouts, runs or sports until the air clears. Focus instead on your Foundation- the movement that’s designed to improve your health and keep you feeling good. Gentle movement indoors will reduce stress and boost your immune system. Spears Strongers’ Movement Improvement routines, Morning Warmup, Evening Unwind, Decompress, Stretch & Strength or Basics are all great options for relieving stress and feeling better.

    • Hydrate: You need more water with the dry air and because your body is producing more mucous to deal with the bad air. Drink up.

    • Sleep: As always, everything’s tougher when we’re low on sleep. If you’re feeling tired due to the air quality take a nap.

    • Eat well: All the things we focus on at Spears Strong with our Themes of the Month are essential to keeping yourself healthy through poor air. That includes eating lots of fruits and veggies!

    • Breathe, breathe, breathe: in and out through your NOSE, slowly.

      • If you're struggling to breathe in this smoky air or you're just feeling nervous, try counting to 5 while you breathe in through your nose and then to 5 while you breathe out. This will slow your breathing and help you relax. Nose clogged? Your nose does a lot of work and filters out pollution, especially now, so do it a favor and clear out the clogs with a Neti Pot or a breathing method such as nasal unblocking or Wimhof breathing. 

  • Health Coaches are nationally certified and required through best industry practice to follow the same law as health care providers that ensures your privacy, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. This means information you share with your Health Coach is confidential. At Spears Strong, our individual coaching sessions take place in our office with the door closed. We’ve got a coach, whiteboards,  fan and air purifier so it’s cozy and comfortable. We may also do coaching sessions as mindful walks outdoors at local parks depending on the client’s plan and availability of the coach for outdoor sessions. 

  • At Spears Strong our individual Health Coaching sessions are typically 55 minutes but our Initial Health Coaching is 90 minutes as it takes time to orient clients on our programs, investigate their starting point and get to know their needs. To understand how to help you progress we need a good idea of where you are at right now. We also do weekly 5-10 minute phone check ins, regular text support and weekly 2-5 minute on demand coaching videos. How much coaching a person does depends on their individual needs, goals and which Spears Strong package they are on.

  • What we talk about in Health Coaching sessions varies greatly from client to client and depends on what you need on that day or that moment. However, we do focus on our Themes of the Month to make the daunting task of improving your health and fitness more doable. This allows us to take small steps and also to take a community approach so we’re all focusing on the aspect of health and fitness together. You can see our themes of the month here. If you’re doing individual coaching with your Personal Training Process then your coaching sessions will be focused on organizing your training, holding you accountable to your goals and whatever specific things you are working on in your Process. If you’re doing the Health Coaching Process we’ll be dialing in all aspects of health and fitness at your pace so what we talk about will depend on where you’re at in your Process. We also talk about life, stress and fun things. Your Health Coach is here to guide you, but even more we’re here to listen so we can help you with whatever you need help with the most.

General Questions

  • First, congratulations on taking this step! Deciding you're ready to take action can feel exciting and motivating! To choose what kind of program to go with first, it's important to ask yourself a few important questions. 

    • What are you trying to achieve in the long run?

    • How much support and accountability do you need? 

    • What kind of setting do you prefer to work out in (large group, small group or individual)?

     Answering these questions can help you decide what to look for in an exercise or health coaching program.

    Whether you have started and quit many health or exercise programs, are having trouble getting going despite having been active in the past, or you are just looking for something new and a supportive community, Spears Strong has a program for you. 

    We start all new clients interested in small group training, personal training and health coaching in our JumpStart or LongStart programs . These programs are high-contact programs, meaning you meet with your trainer and health coach regularly and frequently to ensure you are starting off with a realistic plan that you can succeed with. 

    You can choose to take a more fitness focused approach right away with the Personal Training Longstart/Jumpstart programs, or you can opt to dive into Health Coaching Longstart/Jumpstart to focus first on all of the other aspects of health- sleep, mindset, nutrition, and more. 

    If you’re just looking for a fun and supportive environment to workout in or to take your sport to the next level or if you’re not ready to commit but want to try us out, check out our group workouts and limited run training series. 

    If you’re still not sure which program to choose or have more questions, we’d love to meet with you! Book a free consultation and one of our staff members will talk with you about what you’re looking for, address any concerns you have, and help you decide which program is the best fit for you.

    We can’t wait to meet you!

  • Every week at Spears Strong we feature a Movement of the Week, also known as MOW. Every workout we do uses your entire body and uses several different movements in a very particular order designed by our trainers who know how to create workouts that get you stronger and more flexible while also keeping you safe and resilient. And while we’ll never do a “leg day” or isolate a workout to one particular movement, we do like to have fun! And so we feature one of the many movements we do at Spears Strong each week. Our trainers include the MOW in many different ways, using their creativity to both feature the movement of the week and balance the workout to leave you feeling equally worked and good. Join us for the MOW!

    Stay tuned to our social media (links below) for a demo of the Movement of the Week each Monday!

  • Yes. We take Health Savings Account and Flexible Spending Account cards that act as a debit or credit card. We recommend always checking with your insurance provider to confirm or for any reimbursement. We do not take insurance for our services. 

    We do accept all major credit cards (Amex, Visa, Mastercard, Discover), debit cards, cash or check, We do not take any other payment methods at this time. For any monthly or 5-week package that auto renews we require a credit or debit card on file.

  • For all appointments, Spears Strong requires a 24-hour notice for any canceled or rescheduled appointments. Any appointment canceled or rescheduled without 24 hour notice will be charged the full session. Exceptions may be made for illness or emergencies, at the trainer or practitioner's discretion.

  • Spears Strong operates by appointment only. We do not offer open gym hours. We want to ensure that your workout experience is effective, positive time well spent, so our trainers expertly and thoughtfully craft each session. Whether it’s a group workout that you can drop into, a small group training session tailored to you and your group mates’ goals, or an individual session, each workout is designed to get you feeling good and moving better.

    Our personal training and small group training programs also come with access to video movement sessions to keep you moving and progressing outside of your sessions. We have many movement routine options that require only a bit of floor space and wall space, so you can easily do them at home. 

    When a Spears Strong client reaches the point that they need a workout more challenging, or more specific to their needs, to do outside of their appointments, their trainer will create a workout for them that uses whatever space and equipment they have available outside the Spears Strong Lab. 

    Have more questions about what that looks like, or whether one of our programs would work for you? Get in touch with us!

  • All of your Spears Strong videos can be accessed through your Wellness Living account. You can access your account through the Achieve app on your phone/mobile device or tablet, or through a web browser on any device at https://www.wellnessliving.com/login/spears_strong-isvws9.

    Once you’re logged in, you’ll find the “watch video” tab at the top of the webpage if you’re using a web browser. If you’re using the Achieve app, you can find the videos tab at the bottom of your screen. Select the tab and you’ll see a selection of videos, plus the menu bar above them. The menu bar allows you to filter the videos by category (i.e., Morning Warm Up or Active Stretch). Select your video, hit play and enjoy!

    You can also access your videos via links sent from Spears Strong - these links will take you to the web browser version and are best viewed on a desktop computer.

  • At Spears Strong, we strive to foster a positive culture of change, which starts with making the Spears Strong Lab a place that you want to come back to over and over again. We want you to walk in and immediately know you’re wanted, you’re welcome, and you’re supported in your goals. At Spears Strong you’ll never just be a number on a screen. Our staff will always greet you with warmth, ready to encourage you, motivate you, answer your questions and cheer you on. We meet you where you’re at, not only at the start of your program, but each day as well. Every time you walk through the door you’ll know we’re excited to see you. Our physical space is light, airy and tidy. We have minimal equipment and plenty of open floor space, with a padded floor so you never have to bring a mat. We know the effect a space can have on our mental state, so we keep things organized not only for safety, but to make it easier for you to let go of mental clutter during your time here. We sanitize all equipment (including the floor!) in between every client, so our space stays clean, and we provide storage for your belongings while you workout so you can keep your immediate surroundings free and clear.

    Want to see our space for yourself? Reach out to schedule a free consultation and tour of our facility, or sign up for a group workout!