This time around, our blog post is written by PEX's Katie Woodilla, owner of

Bomber Fitness.

Have fun!

M & B & K

No matter what goals you may have, it is important to know that nothing in fitness happens overnight. For many, it may be a few weeks before they start seeing progress. When someone begins training, a lot of the changes occur on a physiological level, too small for anyone to notice. Committing to your routine + adopting specific lifestyle/diet changes = physical adaptations.

Education is everything - taking the time to understand WHAT it is you're doing and WHY you're doing it will benefit your entire experience. Not only will you feel more confident in your workout, but you'll also be more likely to perform better in each exercise you're performing.

3: Every Body Is Different

Everyone has a different set of genetic and physiological responses that lend to their exercise regimes. If I were to give Person A and Person B the same workouts for 6 weeks and they each worked at the same respective intensity, each of them would respond differently. Person A might lose 10lb while Person B stayed right where they started. This is the ultimate perk of working with someone one-on-one, because it guarantees a customized plan that tailors your specific needs and goals.

In line with #3, Person A's fitness journey is going to be 100% different than Person B no matter how similar their programs are. Maximizing your training sessions so that YOU feel confident and feel like your goals are being accomplished are all that should matter to you.

This goes especially for people who have never trained before or are coming back from a fitness hiatus/injury/significant time away from the gym. Your body is more than likely not going to be able to perform at the level you think it is going to be able to as you are getting settled into a routine. Start slow with your trainer and find out where your body can go.

Person A and Person B are both looking to lose weight and gain muscle. Just because they have the exact same goals does NOT mean that they will be given the same routine. The key here is in discussing your health and exercise history, any pre-existing conditions you may have, your schedule, and other varying external factors with your trainer. Again, the beauty of working with a personal trainer is that it's geared toward YOU and only YOU.

Some people love boxing, some people love running, some people love picking things up and putting them down. The list goes on and on! Building up the intrinsic motivation to exercise regularly comes from the pure enjoyment of what you are doing for your workout. Even if it is a challenge, the joy you get from completing your workout is what ignites the WANT to come back and do it again. Communicating properly with your trainer will allow them to tailor your routine with exercises/styles you enjoy to assist in your progression. A person who enjoys running every day consistently won't necessarily look forward to a training session that involves tai chi.

Like any relationship, communication is essential to ensuring the health and longevity of the partnership. You and your trainer are a team - working together will, no doubt, get you to where you want to be in no time. It may seem scary to step out of your comfort zone and meet with a personal trainer/licensed fitness professional, but trust me, it will be worth every second!

Picture this: you just finished a great boxing session - you're feeing great and cooling down when suddenly, your hands and feet start to cramp.

It might not be the first thing on your mind, but do you realize that while boxing, you maintain the same hand and foot position for the majority of your workout? Hands are in a fist and your foot holds a dorsiflexed position. In doing this, your finger flexors and tibia muscles are holding a continuous contraction.

In the structure of fitness programming, one of the fundamental rules that we follow is working opposing (agonist vs antagonist) muscle groups.

It allows us to be working the body continuously while resting certain muscle groups. When muscles contract, there’s a buildup of lactic acid which can cause cramping and/or discomfort. When working the opposing muscle group, it forces the lactic acid to translate to the contracting muscle.

Many don’t realize that there are areas that are neglected when performing certain exercises, in this case such as boxing. When holding a fist, your finger flexors maintain a contraction thus neglecting the extensors. The important thing to do would be to try and integrate exercises that focuses on those extensor muscles as a part of the workout as a whole. In doing so, one might find that cramping and/or discomfort may be significantly dissipated. In addition, it also might provide greater range of motion and mobility within the wrists. This also connects to the tibia in working multiple planes of movement within the ankle.

One way you can work your wrist extensors and tibia muscles is by adding a 1-2lb dumbbell or band.

What does this even mean? Is it even possible? Can you out-train the natural shape of your muscle bellies and significantly deviate from your genetic body composition? And the answer is...

...no.

You can certainly affect subtle changes in how your body looks, i.e. you can build a lot of muscle and/or lose a lot of fat, but the overwhelming stimulus behind the shape of your body, and your muscles, is determined by your parents. Thanks, mom! (My mom is 5 feet, zero point zero inches, hence my suboptimal height. But, she is beautiful, so I got that going for me. Except I am not beautiful, so what the hell mom?!)

We'll be softly opening up our doors at our new location for the day on March 4th! Please come on in and say hi! There will be PEX trainers in throughout the day to answer any questions.

If you are interested in learning more about our phenomenal team, our PEX Medfield webpage is up and running! Feel free to check out everyone's certifications, client profiles, bios, and access to their own website and accounts.

Many of our trainers are accepting new clients, so if you have friends/family who are interested in starting at the brand new PEX Medfield, we can definitely make that happen.

We're excited beyond belief to have our space finally be opening. We hope to see you there!

Our PEX holiday pop event will be delayed until further notice. We will keep you posted for any new information in terms of dates and times! We are sorry for any inconvenience, our goal is to make the event the best we can possibly make it.