Trainer Talk: My Interview with Jasmine Johnson

"I always want to be healthy and fit and into the lifestyle."Meet Jasmine Johnson.  She used to be my twice a week trainer until I got all flighty and decided to explore the wide world of NYC fitness.  Lucky for me, she understands my commitment issues and still fits me in for sessions or boot camps once in a while.  Yesterday, I stopped by her new digs, a private training studio around the corner from my apartment, for a kickass session and interview.

Jasmine's personal training career began five years ago, while she was studying biology in college.  She had initially contemplated working in a lab or becoming a biology teacher, but quickly realized that the three hours a day she spent at the gym were what really made her happy.  She began working as a personal trainer and graduated college with a degree in exercise physiology.  Jasmine taught yoga on the beach in Key West before moving to NYC, and spent three years at the Equinox on 63rd before going out on her own.  She now trains out of Boaz Fitness, a private training studio on East 72nd that oozes upper east side pre-war walk-up charm.  (It's spotless and it has the original crown moldings!)

To be a good trainer, Jasmine believes you have to care about your clients and live the lifestyle.  "You have to have a vested interest in the people that you're working with.  You have to really want to see them make changes," says Jasmine.  "Someone's trusting you with their body.  You have to take that seriously."  You also have to be into fitness yourself, she cautions.  No one's going to a listen to a trainer that they see outside the gym smoking a cigarette and eating a Snickers bar.

Since it's been on my mind, I asked Jasmine for her views on lifting, and what she thinks of heavy weights versus lighter weights.  "People lose sight of what really matters when it comes to weight loss and how to sculpt your body, " Jasmine explained.  It all comes down to what you're doing to your metabolism, the overall amount of calories that you intake and the total amount that you burn, and what that adds up to at the end of the day.  If you lift heavy and you really break down muscle fiber, because you did so much damage to your body, it's going to take a lot of energy to recover from that workout.  It's that "after-burn" over the next day or two that really makes a difference.  The lighter weights have their place, but that's almost more like doing cardio.  You might burn a lot of calories doing the light weights, but once you're done, you're done burning.

I also asked about diets.  Jasmine says that the biggest change in her own body that she's seen from dieting happened when she was bodybuilding.  She was eating small, 300 calorie meals every three hours that had lots of protein and not a lot of carbs.  Although there's no one diet that she would swear by, she believes that diets can be good because they offer people structure.  Jasmine stresses that diets should be simple.  "And if you want to eat something, eat it."  Then move on. 

Bodybuilding also taught Jasmine about rest.  She was trying to lose weight and gain muscle in a really short time to get ready for a competition.  She thought that she was doing everything she was supposed to do and more, but it wasn't working.  When she finally took a weekend off and slept a lot, everything changed.  The next week, her body really started responding.  "All of a sudden, I was walking down the street just dropping pounds." 

These days, Jasmine works out six days a week.  Like me, Jasmine goes through phases with exercise.  After years of heavy lifting and kettlebells, right now she's into yoga, running and body-weight lifting.  She practices yoga at Sangha Yoga Shala in Williamsburg, which she loves.  "Some days I just want to come in and breathe and stretch, and some days I want to come in and kick my ass," says Jasmine.  At Sangha, you can interpret what they're telling you to do the way you feel like doing it that day.  

To wrap thing sup, I asked Jasmine if there was one thing she wishes she could get through to her clients.  "Sometimes we spend so much time looking in that mirror and picking on ourselves. 'Oh, I should be smaller here.'  'This should be more cut here.' 'G-d, I only made it to the gym three times last week; I'm really failing at life.'  All these small things can make you lose track of what it's all really about.  It's about more than what you look like. It's about feeling good, loving yourself and doing great things for your body and treating yourself well.  It's about so much more than how many minutes of cardio you did and how much better your friend looks in her Lulu[lemon] pants than you do.  I want people to not lose sight of the bigger picture." 

Well said, lady.

-Gym Belle-

Update on April 20, 2010 by Gym Belle

Jasmine can be reached at jasminefitness@tmo.blackberry.net.

CrossFit NYC v. CrossFit Metropolis: First Impressions

From February to early April, I worked out a lot at CrossFit NYC.  It wasn't always easy, but I got hooked on the short, intense, varied workouts.  (Want to catch up on my CrossFit adventures thus far?  Click here.)  I wanted to keep going, but I had a real problem: logistics.  CrossFit NYC is located on 26th between 6th and Broadway, which is pretty out of the way for me.  It's also not someplace I could shower before work. (They have showers, but...)  That meant that I was going at 8:30 at night, if I could get out of work in time.  That's fine once in a while, but doesn't work for me on a regular basis.  The late dinners, late nights and rough mornings were getting to me.

Enter CrossFit Metropolis, conveniently located on 84th St. between 1st and 2nd.  When I started at CrossFit NYC, I had no idea CrossFit Metropolis even existed.  That's partly because it's new; it opened in November, 2009.  When my membership ended at CrossFit NYC, I knew I had to give Metropolis a shot.

I started on Monday and, so far, it's been awesome.  Monday through Thursday, CrossFit Metropolis offers one morning and four evening sessions.  I've been going to the 6:30 am classes.  The time is perfect for me, and the morning regulars are great and very welcoming. 

I've only been three times so far, but here are the key differences I've observed between CrossFit NYC and CrossFit Metropolis:

CrossFit NYC has several instructors, so sometimes there are a bunch of different things going on (i.e. an Elements class going on simultaneous to a workout of the day ("WOD"), or an Express WOD session that overlaps with a regular WOD).  CrossFit Metropolis is a one man show.  All WODs are run by owner Eric Love, which means there's only one class going at a time.  Naturally, the schedule at CrossFit Metropolis is more limited and, whereas NYC is bustling with activity at times, Metropolis is a little more chill.

CrossFit NYC follows the "main site", www.Crossfit.com.  This means that they do the same workout that CrossFitters around the world are doing on any given day.  It also means that they follow the "three days on, one day off" schedule, and each week the rest day(s) fall on different days.  CrossFit Metropolis doesn't follow the main site; Eric picks the WODs.  It's also closed on Fridays, and offers different kinds of workouts on the weekend including a "Kryptonite Hour" on Saturdays and a "Free Newbie Intro Session" on Sundays.  (I haven't yet been on a weekend, so I'm not really sure what the Kryptonite Hour entails.  I'll let you know.)  I'm pretty psyched about this.  Since I do more than just CrossFit, it's great that the weeks are consistant and, at least on Fridays, I won't have to feel like I'm missing something if I run or spin or hit up Physique 57.

At CrossFit NYC, most of the instructors put you through a prescribed warmup, and sometimes those feel as intense as the WODs themselves.  One of my favorite CrossFit NYC instructors, Sara, once had us do three rounds of 12 pull-ups  (I think) and 20 walking lunges.  It wasn't technically "for time," but there wasn't a lot of time to get it done before the WOD, either.  After the WODs, they would have us cash out, which usually meant working on one or two skills.  At CrossFit Metropolis, Eric has us warm up for the first 15 minutes on our own, so it's up to me to make that time count.  So far, there have been no cash outs at the end.  Overall, the workouts have felt a little less intense because of this.

Lastly, CrossFit NYC has been around for a while, so a lot of people there have been doing it for years.  You see some pretty insane athletes.  My impression is that a greater percentage of people at CrossFit Metropolis are newer to CrossFit. 

It was tough to leave CrossFit NYC.  So far, though, I'm really happy with decision to switch to CrossFit Metropolis.  I like working out in the morning, and Eric is awesome.  Incidentally, he's also quite the shutterbug.  I've made the website a few times already.  Here and here.

These are just my quick and dirty, off the cuff impressions.  I will, of course, keep you posted as time goes on.

-Gym Belle-

Do These Weights Make Me Look Bulky?

In case you missed it, this week the New York Times ran an article claiming that, contrary to what many believe, lifting heavier weights for fewer reps will help you slim down rather than bulk up. 

This theory isn't "news" to fitness people.  Nevertheless, I was really psyched.  I'm not actively trying to slim down or lose weight at the moment.  If a few pounds fell off me, that'd be great, but I'm fine where I'm at.  Still, I've been lifting serious weights lately and would hate to think that my new hobby was going to make me meaningfully bigger.  I loved reading that I'm doing the right thing.  I got to feel smart and productive.  Go me!

And then I read the comments. 

Some people vehemently disagree with the article's conclusion, and I understand that.  If you're somebody who has gained mass from lifting, scientific studies aren't going to mean much.  Still, the commenters citing celebrity trainers and ballerinas etc. who wouldn't touch weights for certain muscle groups kind of got to me.  And I find it sad that the word "bulk" is tossed around so casually.  It's one thing to look like the Incredible Hulk and quite another to have some definition.  There were plenty of more uplifting commenters, too - including some CrossFit NYC people - but on the whole, I found the comments a little disheartening.

I have no real business opining on the effects of weight training.  I haven't read the studies.  I'm not a trainer.  I'm not a doctor, or even a science person.  In college, I took Dinosaurs to fulfill my science requirement.  Still, I've been mulling this one over and my belief is that it depends.  Obviously, you have to consider how much weight you're really lifting, and how often you're doing it.  Beyond that, though, muscle under fat looks different than just muscle, so whether you look bigger or not might depend on where you're starting from.  I would think that your diet would also be a factor, i.e. how much protein you're taking in.  It probably also depends on your individual hormone levels; we're not all the same in that department.  I'm not suggesting that the effects of lifting are unknowable in a scientific sense, but it seems really hard to predict results on an individual level without a lot of information and an awful lot of effort.

Nevertheless, I don't think women - or men - who want to lift should be afraid of lifting any more than I think they should be afraid to run for fear of developing thigh muscles.  Our bodies were meant to move.  Moving feels good. 

Lifting heavy weights is awesome.  You get stronger so quickly, and it's incredibly gratifying.  I like the intensity of lifting, and how it wholly consumes me.  When you're doing squats with a barbell over your head that weighs half as much as you do, you really focus.  Or else.  Also, sometimes in life you need to pick things up and it's kind of cool being able to do that.  Yes, I'd rather turn purple than lose the definition in my arms, but it's not all about the aesthetics.  If my goal was to look like a celebrity in a magazine, I'd get out of the gym and go buy Photoshop. 

I'm stepping down off my soapbox now. 

-Gym Belle-