DIY Circuit Training Routine

Q

"Hey there,

I am wondering how much your services are for cardio circuit training for an hours work.
...rate of pay for an hour?

hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,
Adrian "

A

Hello Adrian!

I don't do circuit training. I shall explain why.

While it is a good way for personal trainers to make money, charging clients rates as low as $10 per hour and then getting bulk clients willing to shell out $10 each, the goal of the trainer is really to fit as many people into a single circuit training session as possible. eg. 10 to 15 clients, so that the trainer makes a quick $100 to $150. Some trainers might charge $20 and aim for 5 to 8 clients, but the end goal of the trainer is still to make money while doing very little actual work.

For the clients, yes, they do get a decent workout and they do get access to the personal trainer to ask questions, ask for advice/etc, but they could accomplish the same thing doing a DIY Circuit Training Routine and simply establishing an email relationship with a trainer, possibly paying the trainer for their time to answer emails if they have an excessive amount of questions or advice they are looking for. Ultimately circuit training with a personal trainer is a bit of a scam because the amount of time you have to talk to the personal trainer is actually quite small, especially if the group is crowded or time is constrained.

To Make your own DIY Circuit Training Routine

#1. Look around your home for whatever exercise equipment you already have available. It can be a mix of store bought goodies or even things you made yourself / substituted.

#2. Make a monthly budget for your exercise routines (eg. $10 to $20) to be spent on exercise equipment. Things like dumbbells, skipping rope, yoga mat, hand grips and other small items can be easily added to your routine over time. This allows your training circuit to evolve as the months go by and you collect an impressive collection of goodies to exercise with.

Note - If you don't have a lot of equipment you can even focus on frugal body-weight exercises that use almost no equipment. See the graphic on the right for examples.

#3. Clear a space in your living room or possibly your garage or basement where you exercise freely without bumping into things. If you have a backyard and you don't mind the weather, you now have an excuse to exercise outdoors and get some fresh air.

#4. Organize all of your exercise goodies according to high intensity exercises to low intensity exercises, and then alternate them in a circle starting with a low intensity exercise, then high intensity, then low, then high again, etc, only the circuit is complete. If you like a particular exercise more than others and want to focus on that exercise more you can even make it a Figure 8 design so the middle exercise is done twice during every full circuit.

#5. Schedule daily or weekly circuit training sessions for yourself. Make it part of your routine, possibly with a small reward for you to enjoy after each session (eg. playing Candy Crush for 30 minutes after you finish the routine, watching your favourite TV show, etc. The reward should never be sugary food, although healthy food is certainly acceptable.)

#6. During the scheduled time spend 1 minute on each exercise with up to a 30 second break between each exercise. If you are not tired after a particular exercise feel free to proceed to the next exercise with minimal rest.

Note - If you want to spend extra time on particular exercise you might also consider doing it for 90 seconds or 2 minutes instead of 1 minute.

#7. While exercising try to pay attention to the quality of your form. During a circuit training session with a personal trainer they SHOULD be watching your form and showing you how to correctly perform the exercise so you are maximizing results and minimizing the chances of sports injuries, however many personal trainers I have witnessed doing circuit training don't actually bother to try and warn their clients about the potential for sports injuries. Some of them even use the phrase "no pain no gain" when clients talk about the possibility of sports injuries, which is tantamount to asking for a lawsuit - which happened a few years ago to a New York personal trainer who ignored the complaints of pain from her male client and the man ended up with a permanent disability due to torn ligaments. My motto on the topic essentially is "if it really hurts, you are doing it wrong and you should stop". Stop and seek advice.

#8. If you have serious concerns about the quality of your form / sports injuries then schedule a session with a personal trainer who is an advocate of preventing sports injuries (me or someone equally adamant on the topic of prevention) for an one on one session and bring a list of questions to the session with you. If possible schedule the session at your home so you can show the trainer your routine, what exercises you are doing, and then they can see what you might be doing incorrectly and unsafely. If you email a personal trainer and they don't take your complaints seriously, find a different trainer for a second opinion. All else fails, stop doing exercise which is harming you and focus on exercises that don't hurt you. Some people, especially as they get older, get bad knees and other health problems which hinders their ability to exercise, in which case they should seek the advice of a personal trainer before attempting such exercises as a preventative measure. It is possible circuit training might not be their thing and they might want to consider swimming instead, which is more therapeutic for people with bad knees / joint problems.

I hope this helps!

Sincerely,
Charles Moffat
CardioTrek.ca

What is the Best Quiver?

Q

"Hello!

I saw on one of your older posts that you don't like quivers. Can you explain more about why you don't like them?

Lets say I really want a quiver anyway. Which ones would you recommend?

- Anna"

A

Hello Anna!

I am not completely against quivers. I still use them for transportation purposes, but I will list why I don't like them.

#1. Having to reach awkwardly behind your back to reach arrows that move around in the quiver. If it is a pain to reach, then it really isn't very good at being a quiver. Hence why some archers prefer back quivers that are easier to access or use hip quivers.

#2. Arrows rattle easily and spook deer / turkeys / small game. So a loose quiver means your arrows rattle a lot. A bow quiver however or a quiver with fixed spots for individual arrows solves the problem of rattling. Another old archers' trick is to roll up some fur and stick it lengthwise into the quiver and then add your arrows to it, this prevents them from rattling against each other.

#3. Arrows fall out of loose back quivers whenever you bend over to pick something up.

#4. Arrows fall out of loose hip quivers whenever you are jogging, walking too fast, or bend over.

#5. Ground quivers are handy to have, but are sometimes bulky depending on the design. On a 3D range you might as well leave that behind or get an "arrow caddy" instead. Or do what I do, carry the arrows in your bow hand and learn how to shoot that way.

Below are some interesting designs for quivers...

Below: A Bow Quiver that attaches to the side of the bow.

Below: A Traditional Floppy Back Quiver - Not my favourite.

Below: A Back Quiver that allows more ease of access.

Below: A Side Quiver with more easy access.

Below: A side quiver with fixed arrow slots so they don't rattle or fall out.

The one below also allows ease of access.

Archery for Actors in Toronto

It seems as though I am building a growing reputation for training actors how to shoot and doing occasional work for TV shows / etc.

To date I have:

Trained two television actors how to shoot longbows for a period piece television series about the French monarchy.

Trained a theatre actress to shoot a recurve bow because part of a script required her to shoot an Olympic recurve bow out a window off of the stage.

Shot all of the trick shots during some slow-motion film work on behalf of Rice Krispies. (That was a lot of fun by the way. I would totally do more slow-motion filming in the future again.)

Did all of the archery shots for a sports documentary made by TSN.

Trained a Quebec musician how to do archery for an episode of a French language television show.

Appeared on an episode of Storage Wars Canada (OLN) because of my knowledge/collection of antique bows. (The bow they had me identify was not actually an antique. It was a circa 2000 Bear Grizzly.)

Doing various TV clips for CBC, CTV and CityTV.

All this work training theatre/TV actors and appearing on television has got me thinking however. Maybe I should offer lessons designed specifically for actors, which is what I have done in the past when teaching actors - tailored the classes to suit their needs. Longbow lessons for the actors who are doing period work, Recurve / Olympic Recurve lessons for the threatre actress who is shooting an Olympic recurve on stage.

Toronto does have a vibrant film, television and theatre industry after all. There is certainly a demand for more actors who can do archery properly, as opposed to the current standard which is actors who barely know how to shoot appearing in films/etc and looking like they don't even know how to shoot. So if you are an actor in Toronto and looking for archery lessons in Toronto then I am certainly available to teach you how to shoot properly.

Note - I think movie directors should also get archery lessons. Joss Whedon (director of The Avengers) could certainly use a lesson because he apparently wanted the actor (Jeremy Renner) to look "heroic" while shooting, no matter how mistakes the actor was making. Hawkeye's archery style was rather ridiculous. His drawing elbow is too high, his bow arm elbow is locked when it should be relaxed, he is squeezing the bow when his fingers should be relaxed, he is wearing TWO armguards on his bow arm because apparently the actor kept hitting his arm (due to his locked elbow) [if you look closely you can even see bruises on his bow arm], he is pulling to his chin when he should be pulling to his mouth, he has both eyes open when he should be closing his right eye since he is left eye dominant, his finger positions on the string are uneven and curved inwards when they should be even and aligned, and it looks like he is leaning backwards a bit - a sign of bad posture. There is a lovely article on GeekDad titled "Hawkeye, World's Worst Archer" which doesn't go in to all the details I just did, but the idea that people are calling him "Hawkeye, World's Worst Archer" is rather amusing.

There is a long history of professional archers teaching actors how to shoot. Below are a few examples.

Howard Hill teaching Errol Flynn for "The Adventures of Robin Hood".

Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight received archery training prior to their roles in "Deliverance".

Fred Bear remarked that Burt Reynolds caught on quickly and was a natural.

Sometimes the professional archers would also appear in cameo roles in the films or be tasked to perform any of the trick shots during the filming, like Howard Hill who did all of the tricks shots for "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and appeared in the competition scene of the film.

What bothers me (and many archers/film critics) is when a new film comes out and the actor/actress clearly doesn't know how to shoot or someone taught them the wrong way to shoot that style of bow. A famous example of this is Jennifer Lawrence of The Hunger Games franchise. I have already explained in a previous post why Jennifer Lawrence's shooting style is wrong and thus I am instead going to point you to that older post and the video below, in case you are curious about learning why that particular style is wrong.

See The #1 Mistake made by Amateur Archers: Not Anchoring Properly to learn more about why Jennifer Lawrence was trained wrong.



Happy Shooting!

Archery Equipment in the Niagara Region

Q

"Hello!

 

I live in the Niagara area and I am going to start attending an archery range as the weather gets warmer. What stores do you recommend that are closer to my home? Also should I shop on Amazon to get things?

Do I need an archery glove? Is it really necessary?

- Y"

A

Hello Y!

Well let's see... there is:

Doc's Archery Sales and Services on the American side of the border, north of Buffalo. Mostly sells crossbows and compounds.

Erie Tracker, SW of Niagara, mostly a gun shop / fishing store but also sells archery equipment - mostly compounds.

The Archer's Nook in London Ontario, which is comparable to the Bow Shop below. Depending on who you talk to some people prefer Archer's Nook.

The Bow Shop in Waterloo Ontario, which is considered by many to be the best bow shop in all of Ontario. Their selection is good. I was a little disappointed the first time I went there because I was expecting it to be bigger.

And yes, an archery glove is pretty much a necessity. Some archers prefer thumb rings or tabs, but the basic concept is to protect the fingers. Not doing so causes permanent nerve damage to the fingers to people who shoot regularly and yet refuse to wear some kind of protection.

If you decide to buy online the store I would recommend is Three Rivers Archery, at 3riversarchery.com. Very similar to Amazon, but specializes in archery products.

Stringwalking vs Facewalking at Traditional Archery Competitions

Awhile back a friend on Facebook showed me the following document for a competition he is taking part in. On it the organization has clearly laid out that Stringwalking and Facewalking will not be allowed during the competition and will basically be considered cheating.

I will never understand why some people like Stringwalking and making their arrows slower, less accurate and more unstable during flight. Sure it allows them to be lazy about how they aim, but the negatives to their accuracy far outweigh any benefits due to laziness.

Stringwalking follows the principle that if the arrow is angle differently by changing the position of the arrow on the string that is will travel at a different speed and thus land in a different spot. Advocates of Stringwalking use it so they can avoid changing their aim so much and instead just change where the arrow is nocked on the string. However doing so causes the arrow to be off-center on the bowstring, resulting in top and bottom limbs of the bow doing different amounts of work during the shot - which in turn changes the speed and acceleration of the limbs bouncing back to their non-drawn position. That change of speed hurts the speed, stability and accuracy of the arrow and ultimately results in an inferior shot.

Stringwalking Amateur

Facewalking in contrast at least makes some logical sense and doesn't reduce arrow speed or accuracy. The arrow maintains its level of accuracy during flight, the only thing that has changed is the anchor point drawn to on the face of the archer.

eg. A low anchor point for targets further away. A higher anchor point for targets closer to the archer.

The problem with Facewalking is that it involves a lot of guesswork for determining the distance to the target. The archer would have to deliberately train and practice doing Facewalking at many different distances in order to get even a semblance of accuracy.

An Amazing Example of What Not To Do

As opposed to the traditional method of shooting which is to use the same nock point on the string during every shot, the same anchor spot all the time, and the only thing changing is where you aim based on the distance to the target.

Stringwalking and Facewalking are basically old archers tricks for adjusting their aim, but they are problematic because they are not that accurate, and notoriously frowned upon by veteran archers. They are commonly used these days by amateurs who think, mistakenly, that it will somehow improve their accuracy. Amateurs who haven't yet figured out how to gauge distances and adjust their aim accordingly. Which unfortunately is no good for Facewalkers, because they still haven't learned how to gauge distances and are just guessing at the distance or are relying on being told what the range to the target is.

Thus when I saw the above rule for the archery competition above, I laughed.

Why did I laugh?

Because they are basically banning inferior methods of adjusting your aim. Stringwalking is notoriously bad for the accuracy and arrow flight, whereas Facewalking is notoriously problematic because it still requires the archer learn how to gauge distances, a skill they have deliberately avoided learning and have wasted their time trying to learn a way to "cheat" that doesn't actually work.

As an analogy lets ask what would happen if the Summer Olympics banned sprinters from wearing extra weights on them while sprinting.

Extra weight isn't going to help sprinters to go faster. It will make them go slower. It isn't cheating, quite the opposite it is a negative.

It would be like golfers not being allowed to hop on one foot while attempting to whack the golf ball with their favourite driver. Hopping on one foot certainly wouldn't be cheating, it would be a severe disadvantage.

Or it would be like a professional boxer not being allowed to take 10 sleeping pills before going in to the ring. Chances are likely the boxer will either be knocked unconscious, he or she will likely fall asleep mid-fight when the pills kick in.

Now you understand why I find the banning of Stringwalking / Facewalking laughable. The organizers of the event clearly want to discourage such an amateur method of aiming, not because it is cheating but because they know how notoriously bad those two styles are and instead choosing to discourage those styles in an effort to encourage beginner archers to learn how to gauge distances and adjust their aim the traditional way.