Frequently Asked Questions 

While using free weights, your body must work to stabilize both itself and the weights, engaging your core muscles more fully than on an isolated muscle-specific weight machine.  Free weights are versatile for a variety of exercises for each muscle group, and they don't require much space to use effectively.  The weights come in a variety of increments so we an adjust to the appropriate amount of muscle-loading for each exercise.  They are easily sanitized between clients and are relatively easy to transport in and out of your home.

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We will also use your own body weight as resistance in some exercises, and may incorporate resistance bands, balls, and other equipment into your routines.

The best, short answer to this questions is that by committing to the 409 Fitness program, you'll lose inches, get stronger, and feel healthier.  But you may also lose a significant amount of weight!  Your physique will change and areas of your body will tighten and tone.  The long answer to the weight-loss question is that it depends!  We know that's an annoying answer, but it's the honest one.

 

Weight loss is a complex phenomenon and depends on many factors, and your physical exercise routine with 409 Fitness is just one of those variables.  We will certainly help you along the way to lose weight if that is your goal.  However, 409 Fitness can only be in charge of what you accomplish during your limited time with us--the other many hours of the week are not in our control.  To lose weight, you'll need to burn more calories than you intake, meaning your eating choices are another crucial component of the weight loss equation.  We cannot make healthy food or lifestyle choices for you when you're not with us, but we can educate you so that you're able to make them for yourself! 

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Now that we've covered that key bit of information, we can also tell you that increasing your body's muscle percentage increases your metabolic rate, which means your body will burn more calories even when it is at rest.  When your body is able to burn more calories around the clock, you are likely to lose weight. 

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If weight loss is your primary goal, we suggest complementing your 409 Fitness routine with cardiovascular exercise on the off-days, such as brisk walking, jogging, tennis or pickleball, etc., but anything that elevates your heart rate works, whether that's yard work or chasing after grandchildren!  Smart watches can help you keep track of your activity level, and the goal is to keep as active as possible.  This will help you burn more calories and accelerate the benefits of your workouts with 409.  As you lose weight, a 409 Fitness program will absolutely help you work toward that tighter, toned physique.

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Rather than focusing on a number on the scale, we love to focus on your progress in your quest for a healthier lifestyle.  The numbers--via counting exercise repetitions, routine bloodwork levels, bone density scans, or inches around your waist with a tape measure--will speak for themselves if you stick with the program.  You just need to be willing to make lifestyle modifications for lasting change.  Soon it will feel like second nature.  409 Fitness is the perfect way to start!

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Either way, please consult your primary care doctor before beginning a diet or exercise routine.

For all clients, regardless of experience, your beginning couple of sessions will be highly-focused on your form and technique as we introduce the mechanics of each exercise.  It's essential to make sure we're teaching clients a safe and effective method to prevent injury, but also to give us a chance to assess your current fitness level.  These first couple sessions may feel a bit slower-paced due to the extra attention paid to these necessary details.  But get ready!  Because then the fun, personalized challenge starts!

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Each session you will engage in a full-body workout, meaning you will work all of your body's major muscle groups in a series of guided exercise repetitions with free weights (dumbbells, plates, etc.) and body weight.  These exercises can be modified for physical limitations or for additional challenge!  

 

We increase the resistance (weight) or number or repetitions as you develop strength, and introduce more advanced exercises as you progress.  After you've completed a full package of 12 workouts, you'll have a great foundation and we'll be ready to really fine-tune the content of your sessions to meet your personal goals.  

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At this point, you can ask to introduce high-intensity interval training into your routine if you'd like the extra cardiovascular component to your sessions.  This is best accomplished in 45-minute or 60-minute sessions.

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We have several clients that also prefer to devote some time toward the end of each session to assisted stretching exercises for pain relief and increased mobility.  Please let us know if this interests you.

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A great relationship develops as we get to know you and your personal objectives, and it's important that you communicate with your trainer so we can best support you!

We ask you to initially commit to a 12-session package, meeting twice per week, meaning that the package is designed to (ideally) last 6 weeks.  Two full-body sessions per week provides sufficient challenge to your muscles, but also allows for sufficient recovery time.  

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If you are at an advanced level, you can consider choosing a package with longer sessions (45- or 60-minutes).  Depending on schedule availability, we might be able to add a third day, but it is not necessary to get results.

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As part of an overall healthy lifestyle, we recommend complementing your 409 Fitness training with cardiovascular exercise on some of your off-days.  We can help you figure out a routine that will work for you, and can help keep you accountable until it becomes a healthy habit!

Any balanced fitness regimen has both strength training and cardiovascular exercise components.  We recommend adding cardio workouts into your weekly schedule as part of an overall healthy lifestyle (with physician approval), particularly on days we do not meet for personal training.

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When you buy a package from 409 Fitness, you are essentially purchasing "minutes"--and it is much more economical for us to design and guide you through a combination of strength training exercises, as opposed to "babysitting" you as you walk on the treadmill or use an elliptical for an extended period of time.  The value of our expertise and guidance is simply best used in the strength-training area where we can provide you with corrections, modifications, new skills and exercises, record progress, and help facilitate the challenge.  We're happy to consult with you to design a cardio routine that will work for you and your schedule on the days we do not meet.  That being said, this is YOUR program, and we will do whatever we can to meet your wants and needs, so please let us know of any questions or concerns.

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If you'd like to add some cardio into your strength training workouts, we recommend our High Intensity Interval Training.  This modification will add short bursts of timed cardio exercises in between your strength training sets.  Please let us know if you're interested in HIIT, and we can help identify the appropriate time to add it into your routine!  We recommend this for 45- and 60-minute sessions so we still have enough time to accomplish your full-body workout.

Yes!  409 Fitness's trainers are skilled at identifying when it's time to up the challenge, but it's also important that you communicate with your trainer directly if an exercise is not challenging enough, or if you do not feel the muscle engagement as you are guided through an exercise.  Your feedback is part of what drives the design of your program, and our trainers will ask how you're feeling throughout your workout--be honest!  That's the way to best ensure an appropriate level of challenge each session.

 

Further, everyone's body structure has slightly different biomechanics, and minor adjustments can really increase the intensity of an exercise.  Keep the feedback coming so we can adjust accordingly!

Most of us have past injuries!  Although ideally you'd have no restrictions, we know that even healed injuries have lingering effects such as tightness, soreness, or loss of mobility on occasion.  We can totally work with that--but you need to tell us about it ASAP!  Our certified trainers know multiple exercises that work each muscle group, so we can modify or exclude exercises as needed.

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Please consult your doctor before beginning any exercise program.

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It's important for us to know about all relevant parts of your medical history prior to you starting as a client!  We need to know if your doctors have given you any restrictions for any reason.  You are responsible for providing us with this information so we can make informed and safe decisions regarding your exercise regimen.  If you have numerous limitations, we may ask you for a doctor's note approving your participation.  This is just for both of our safety.  Overall, it's better to tell us too much than to tell us too little, and please keep us updated over time if your health history changes!

 

Other things we need to know about include (but are not limited to):

1. Orthopedic injuries or concerns, especially lower back and knee pain.

2. If you have a history of drastic blood sugar swings (up or down).

3. If you have asthma we need to watch, or use a rescue inhaler (and preferably where you keep it in case you need it).

4. If you are currently attending physical therapy, and what for.

5. If you suffer from dizziness, vertigo, or other balance issues.

6. If there's a reason you use an Epi-pen (and preferably where you keep it in case you need it).

7. Any other health issue or medication that may impact your performance or physical coordination.

 

Please be open and honest with us about your medical history so we can provide you with the best, safest experience possible.  Your responses are kept confidential in your client file and will only by seen by 409 Fitness.

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Mild to moderate muscle soreness can be expected after workouts.  Although it is very unusual, please let us know if you are feeling any sharp or unusual pain so we can immediately stop that exercise, and can try substituting with another one.  We will reiterate: it's crucial that you communicate any pain to us to avoid injury, and so we can lead your workout in a different, equally-effective direction.

H.I.I.T. is an acronym that stands for High Intensity Interval Training.  HIIT is an exercise method that includes timed bursts of cardio exercises in between sets of other exercises.  For 409 Fitness, that means in between sets of strength training, you will perform a timed interval of cardiovascular exercise.  This could take the form of jogging stairs, jumping rope/jacks, agility ladder drills, or simply a few high-intensity minutes on a cardio machine, if you happen to have one at home (treadmill, bike, elliptical, etc.).  We can get creative!  The goal is to keep an elevated heart rate throughout your workout to add intensity and effectiveness.

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Since the intervals take up several minutes of your session time, HIIT is best incorporated into 45-minute and 60-minute sessions so we can still accomplish your full-body workout each time we meet.

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The HIIT addition is available to any 409 Fitness participant who has learned the basic form and technique of our strength training exercises.  Please talk to your trainer so we can add HIIT when appropriate, if you're interested in kicking your workout up a notch or two!

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This decision requires you to consider several factors:

1. Current fitness level:  If you're new to exercise, new to lifting weights, or consider yourself "out of shape," we recommend starting with our 30-minute package.​​ If you're an athlete, do other types of workouts regularly, or have a weight-lifting background, you might want to consider a 45-minute package.  If you're already in good shape and are looking for more of a challenge, we would suggest at 45- or 60-minute package.​​​

2. Budget:  We recommend choosing a session length you know you'll be able to consistently afford so you'll be able to consistently make progress.  Consistency is the key!  Longer sessions are more expensive, but you are able to accomplish more each time we meet.  They are well worth the investment if you are able.

3. Schedule:  You will need to identify how much time you're able to devote each week to working out, and we'll need to find times that are compatible within the trainer's schedules as well.

4. Goals/desired timeframe for achieving goals:  For example, if you have an event with a hard deadline, such as a wedding or reunion, you may want to choose a longer session length so we can accomplish as much as possible before that date.

5. How quickly you are able to transition between exercises:  We try to keep the transitions between exercises as short as possible so we are the most efficient with your time and keep the intensity up.  However, some individuals like or want longer breaks between exercise sets, which means we will not get to as many exercises per session.  If this sounds like you, perhaps consider a 45-minute session so you can still accomplish the full-body workout as intended.

6. If you're interested in group training:  Group training is only offered in 60-minute sessions to maintain the same level of intensity as a one-on-one workout.

Overall, in buying a package you are purchasing "minutes" of your trainer's time, expertise, and guidance.  If you begin with a 30-minute package and feel the need to bump up to 45 minutes halfway through your package, no problem!  We will just divide your remaining minutes up accordingly:  you'll end up with fewer sessions but longer sessions for the remainder of that package.  Then when you renew the following package, you can "officially" upgrade to 45-minute session package if desired.